Editors Note: There are four photos associated with this press release.

BMO Financial Group was, once again, recognized for excellence in its financial reporting by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA). Last evening, CICA announced the rankings in its annual review of financial reporting, assessing TSX listed companies across multiple industry sectors for excellence in financial reporting, corporate governance disclosure, electronic disclosure and sustainable development reporting.

BMO was ranked best among its financial institution peers for Corporate Reporting in Financial Services.

Judges commended BMO for presenting a compelling shareholder proposition in an annual report that focuses on strategy and the bank's ability to deliver on its targets.

According to the judges, "The use of effective design, layout, appropriate web techniques, captioned graphs and charts all make the Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) section accessible and interesting. BMO outlines the factors affecting future results, which demonstrates the number and complexity of factors to be managed. This prepares the reader for a future discussion on risk. The scorecard information both in print and online shows performance to target in a user-friendly manner, using four clearly quantified mid-term financial targets."

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Judges also gave BMO high marks for providing a "wealth of information" online through an interactive annual report that is easy to navigate and user friendly and they praised BMO's governance information for being "complete and concise" with a clear presentation of information pertaining to the Board of Directors and Management Committee.

Tom Flynn, Chief Financial Officer, BMO Financial Group, stated, "This award is a testament to the dedication and expertise of the professionals in BMO's Finance, Investor Relations, Legal and Corporate Communications units who work so hard to make complex financial information easy for our shareholders and stakeholders to understand - qualities that align directly with the BMO brand. On behalf of our Board, our Management Committee and our shareholders I want to thank each and every one of them for a job well done."

BMO's 2011 annual report featured an innovative pop-art design - and a rather unique approach; the bank split its production run equally among four separate but related cover designs. "Our aim was to convey that as the world around us grows more complex, it can seem like there are more questions than answers but that it's also possible to make sense of things," said Mr. Flynn. "We created four distinct graphics to carry that message."

PHOTO EDITORS:

Photos of the bank's unique cover designs are available at the following links:

Established in 1817 as Bank of Montreal, BMO Financial Group is a highly diversified North American financial services organization. With total assets of $542 billion as at July 31, 2012, and more than 46,000 employees, BMO Financial Group provides a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and solutions.

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